PASSINGS: Dan Fitzgerald
Dan Fitzgerald
Gonzaga basketball coach
Dan Fitzgerald, 67, the coach who built Gonzaga University into a national basketball power but resigned before the school began its current run of NCAA tournaments, died Tuesday night after collapsing in a restaurant in suburban Spokane, Wash.
He was pronounced dead at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, according to a nursing supervisor at the hospital.
The cause of death was not immediately released.
Fitzgerald recruited future NBA star John Stockton to the campus, took the Zags to their first NCAA tournament in 1995, and built the coaching staff of Mark Few, Dan Monson and Bill Grier that has put the team in every NCAA tournament since the 1999 season.
Fitzgerald served as head coach from 1978 to 1981, and then from 1985 to 1997.
He spent four years concentrating on his responsibilities as athletic director, including renovating the school’s basketball arena.
He stepped down in December 1997 after a school investigation determined that he had been collecting and spending athletic department funds without the knowledge of the university controller’s office, which is a possible violation of NCAA rules.
Fitzgerald contended that none of the money went to players or into his own pocket.
In recent years he had worked as community relations manager for the Northern Quest Casino.
-- times staff and wire reports
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for the L.A. Times biggest news, features and recommendations in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
